You can add The Animals version of ‘The House Of The Rising Sun’ to this page, which sounds a lot like the verse part of the Dolly Parton song. Although I’d imagine it’s a pretty standard eastern folk/rock chord progression…. Still, good find!!

“There is a claim made that the intro of “Stairway to Heaven” was influenced by Spirit’s “Taurus”. OTOH there is evidence that Spirit themselves nicked their song from Davey Graham’s acoustic version of “Cry Me a River”. Graham’s song was issued in 1958, ten years before “Taurus” came out. The video clip for “Cry Me a River” can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWeejHJxGjs It is quite clear that large sections of “Taurus” was taken from Graham’s song without credit.”

I’d have to throw another one on the pile here. Eric Clapton’s song “Let It Grow” (ca 1974) borrows heavily from the “Stairway” chord progression in the fade in the final 90 seconds of the song. In fact, every time I hear the Eric Clapton song I can’t help but sing “Stairway” over the top of that chord progression.

There are only so many chords out there, some of them are bound to end up sounding alike. How many original songs have you written lately? I’m sure that if any one person out there tried to write an original song right now, it would end up sounding similar to any number of songs that already exist. It’s almost inevitable.

Thanks for your comments Tonya. I agree! The goal of this site isn’t to necessarily call out artists on their originality (although sometimes it’s unavoidable) but to help people find these similarities and/or influences in modern music. Sometimes you hear a song and it just sounds like something else. Google it! And you just might end up back here!